A stopping device effecting an automatic stopping of the internal-combustion engine of an automotive vehicle when predetermined engine-stopping conditions are met and effecting an engine restart when predetermined restarting conditions are met, is disclosed, for example, in German Patent Application No. DE 199 25 230 A1. This application also describes a regulating process, by means of which the internal-combustion engine may be automatically stopped. Such a regulating process constitutes the genus in the preamble of the independent claim. Thus, it is known to monitor and evaluate certain communication signals with a control device and an implemented application program in the on-board network of an automotive vehicle. An automatic stopping step is initiated in case the vehicle speed is zero, the accelerator is off, the brake is applied, the battery charge exceeds a predetermined value and if all pre-set conditions during a predetermined maintenance period are fulfilled.
Stopping delays operating with fixed, predetermined maintenance periods, until the internal-combustion engine is eventually stopped, have presently not met with wide acceptance. A reason therefore might be found in the unlike sense of time of the different drivers. Another reason resides in all probability in the fact that fixed predetermined maintenance periods can certainly not satisfy all possible driving conditions of an automotive vehicle. It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a remedy by means of an improved control process.